Hidden Away
by xoxcrescentmoonxox
Summary: Princess Andromeda is locked in a bitter, Black tower. Each June she's spirited away from Hogwarts to return to the cold manor where her mother's voice rings loud and angry all day, trapping her within the detested walls of her childhood. Oneshot.


**Written for the Reviews Lounge Summer Collaboration (linked in my profile). Just claim a character and write a oneshot about them using the prompt word _summer._ If you enjoyed this oneshot, there are a bunch of really great ones posted together on the RL profile that you should definitely check out.**

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Princess Andromeda is locked within a bitter, Black tower. Each June she's spirited away from Hogwarts to return to the cold manor; each June she comes home with Bella's heated denunciations and later with Cissy's far flung fancies that penetrate the barrier she's built between them during the school months. Her mother's voice rings loud and angry all day, and she feels trapped inside the walls of their London house.

Her last summer at home, just after sixth year, is the worst. She's been able to spend the school year avoiding her sisters with her newly increased Prefect duties; been able to avoid them with Ted Tonks as they creep down hallways into secluded corners, falling into each other's arms only when they're sure they're alone, and then staying like that for hours on end. But now she's stuck here, alone in her canopied bed and demoted to rereading the book of Muggle fairy-tales that Uncle Alphie gave her years ago which she's always stashed under her mattress. It's Rapunzel that she reads about the most; silly Rapunzel with her golden plaits, who sits on a window-seat and cries for a prince to rescue her. Silly Rapunzel who, for all that she's pathetic, gets her prince; gets her escape — and if someone like that can come out happily ever after, why not Andromeda?

So like silly Rapunzel, Andromeda also spends hours gazing out her window at the enchanted grounds, the ones that Druella has charmed to make the house's exterior more visually appealing from the inside. Shrubs clipped to shapes of animals — unicorns, dragons, and one manticore — adorn the outskirts of an elaborate hedge maze. Sometimes Andromeda feels like she's running through that very maze, starting from the center and always turning in circles, unable to find a way out. She makes a game out of it and plays her way through — for each day closer to Hogwarts she imagines herself around one more curve; one step closer to escape.

Every few days Bellatrix joins her in her room, in turns lecturing about blood purity and shrieking that Andromeda is an ungrateful wench who should never have been born Black; she'll never live up to the name. _But why?_ Andromeda replies scathingly, _Would I want to?_ At that Bellatrix spins on her heel and stalks down the hall, leaving Andromeda worried and angry in her room, telling herself that it doesn't matter how similar to Bellatrix she looks. That it doesn't matter how their voices rise to the same pitch when they scream at each other, because their morals are completely different. That a trapped Princess is always better than her wicked Sister.

It's harder when Narcissa comes, though, in all her pristine twelve year old innocence. Harder because Narcissa doesn't understand their family's twisted ideals and has never had the chance to identify herself with one way of thought or another. Harder, because Andromeda knows that once she's gone, there will be nothing to stop Cissy from becoming a little blonde Bellatrix. So she smiles when her sister dances around the room, upsetting knick knacks and chattering about going back to school and her friends and Aunt Walburga's upcoming party. Smiles, and tries to forget what she'll be abandoning.

But those long months at last come to an end, and one day Princess Andromeda leans out the window and gazes around the gardens a final time. She enjoys it without guilt, because this is the last time she will be here; the last time she can lean back against the wall and look out; the last time she can imagine running through the curves of the hedge maze. She's interrupted when Druella calls for her to come downstairs, and again the house elf slips in to take her trunk. Then, alone once more, Andromeda kneels on the window seat and tracks the lines of the maze around the final corners, rejoicing as she bursts out into the rest of the gardens. And at last she slams the widow shut, locking it tightly and drawing the shutters closed, then latching the hook and eye as well. Years from now another child might come; one of Cissy's, perhaps, and throw the window open again to gaze over those very grounds, imagining just as she has done. But now her mother is shrieking to her that they'll be late, and the room is barren of Andromeda's life, and there's nothing more to do here — so she clatters downstairs and doesn't look back.

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Princess Andromeda escapes the bitter, Black tower. It's a bright June morning soon after graduation and she and Ted are hand in hand, standing on a green lawn with yellow sun beaming down on her white dress and his blue robes. A Juriwitch stands in front of them, stumbling over the Muggle ceremony Ted and his parents wanted read — but the final lines are familiar to both worlds.

_Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?_

_I do._

_Then you may kiss the bride._

Andromeda Tonks will never have to return to her dark room; never have to look across the shaded grounds again, wishing to be anywhere else. She will never have to laugh at silly Rapunzel, secretly envying her perfect ending, because Andromeda's own is better than any fairy tale.

Andromeda Tonks kisses Ted in the midst of this explosion of summer colors. She kisses him, and she doesn't look back.

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**I'm really hoping this story makes sense, and would love any and all feedback you could give me. Thanks for reading!**


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